Cristiano Ronaldo will return to boyhood club Sporting Lisbon this summer – according to his mother, Dolores Aveiro.
The 36-year-old still has a year left on his contract at Juventus, but he has been linked with a move away from I Bianconeri this summer, with the club where he started his career mooted as a potential destination.
Victory over Boavista on Tuesday gave Sporting their first Portuguese title in 19 years, ending the long domination of Porto and Benfica, and Aveiro spoke to fans from her balcony during street celebrations.
“I’ll talk to [Cristiano] to bring him back,” she proclaimed. “Next year, he will play in Alvalade [Sporting’s stadium].”
While Ronaldo has, to no one’s surprise, continued to rack up the goals this season, notching 34 in 51 appearances in all competitions, Juve have endured their worst season in a decade.
With just two game of the Serie A campaign remaining, Andrea Pirlo’s side find themselves outside the top four and risk missing out on Champions League qualification for the first time since 2011, with Antonio Conte’s Inter Milan breaking Juve’s nine-year stranglehold on the Scudetto.
Ronaldo joined Juve from Real Madrid in the summer of 2018 in a deal reportedly worth over £100 million, which temporarily put him among the most expensive players of all time for the second time.
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